CONDITIONS NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 17

CONDITIONS NEW ZEALAND.

SERMON ON MORALITY.

A CLERGYMAN SPEAKS OUT. PALMEBSTON N., October 12. The Maaswatu Mounted Rifles held. j their annual church parade yesterday. ' In the course of his address the Rev, CC Harper, -vicar of AU Saints' Chlittch, ' said -that of late years it hod been the i custom to assert that crime was rapidly •decreasing in New Zealand, but the gover- • nor of on© .of the gaols had informed' bin* that' it was ridiculous to say that crime was decreasing. Quite the reverse ; wie gaols were full, and many of the convicts, 'were colonial youths. He had also been informed by the police that they were exhorted, only to arrest people and obtain convictions when this was unavoidable ; • otherwise our criminal statistics would be unsatisfactory, and. we would get a bad name. In. other words, we had shut our eyes to crime, and tvouM refuse to see it, j and then say it did not exist, j In reference to the commercial, industrial, and financial position of the country, jhe said he believed generally that our I laws were .igood and on right lines. He considered that wage-earners should have a larger share in the profits of their work, than, wes often the cafe. In past years, employers and property -ownens were often, simply the selfish possessors of money, . and gave an entirely inadequate return , to those who helped them to earn their* ] money. Now, we had by legislation altered this very largely, and the Tule of i the property class, which was often, buti | by no means always, a selfish rule, had 1 , given place to a rule of the -praige-earnintf , class, which, also, was too often ana generally purely a selfish rule. We hadnot got rid of class domination, but had merely transferred it from one class to another, and it was still exercised, with a disregard to the needs of those outside • that class. The result was that those of I the old first class possessing capital had withdrawn to a great extent from the couirtoy, and the class below the ruling | [ class found themselves cut off from the • avenues of work and face to face with chance earnings and an enormously enhanced rate of living. If this country had determined to live without attracting capital from the Old World and to the regulation of the cost of production without any regard to the markets of tho world, which it could not influence or | ' control, it might do co ; but we must | fate the consequences, and rise to our respon^ibiliti-as. But what was happening? Our representative, by a course of misrepresentations and concealment of the truth of tho industrial position out here, were attracting to our chores hundreds and hundreds of single men and -women ; and the familes of these poor deluded people were given to understand they were coming to a country of hi^h wages, cheap living, abundant work, and unprecedented prosperity. To-day they were in their hundreds up and down the Dominion struggling with poverty, disappointment, and wTetchedneeß, and curbing the day they set foot on our shores. Our prophets in England were, prophesying falsely, and our people here loved to have it so. And what was going to be the end thereof? A j-ear or two ago several spoke out in this way — the speaker for one — and they were howled at, not because what they said was un- 1 true, but because they said it. The bottom of thb evil was selffahaese and; pride. However, we had. created it — we' were all responsible. What were we going to-do? While the markets of the world were propitious, what our ■ representatives said of us was in the main true. Now 1 those markets were not propitious, and depression was the result. Were we going' to cling. selfishly to what we had gained $nd let those- drawn to our shores by these false statements continue to suffer?

I Yet he (the rev. gentleman) saw no effort on the part of men in power locally or generally to apply themselves to relieve that suffering. He continued : " The financial and -commercial aspect is not my business, but. the moral aspect is, and I declare solemnly that this shutting otit eyes to the true position, thi3 refusal to r*eog- , nise our responsibility and "to see our selfishness; is a grievous , moral wrong axus fraught with much danger. Let us not he like Israel and Judah of old and refuse' to. see .bur bad points and tbe weaknesses of our country. Bpt let. lis^ thank •$&($ Avhen these are brought to 'our , notice, and 1 humbly examine xnuseives to -find out in what degree we are- individually respon- " sible, and how fair we are ruled merely by selfishness or pride."